While not without it's pleasures, Now You See Me is the second 2013 wide release that squanders the intrigue of magic. Whereas The Incredible Burt Wonderstone traded in schmaltz and shopworn gags, Now You See Me attempts to thrill with bright visuals and illogical plot details that not only threaten to topple over into absurdity, but firmly do. The suspension of disbelief it demands of its audience is so great that even M. Night Shyamalan would belt a hearty "wait a second."

Louis Leterrier, the helmer of such unassuming genre entries as the first two Transporter movies, has shed much of the tedious computer generated inanity that made The Incredible Hulk and the Clash of The Titans remake chores to sit through (although the kraken was the most memorable screen monster of 2010). Sure, holographic projections, pixelated dollar bill confetti and far fetched technology abound, but those are not the chief pleasures.

Four variants of the magic trade—Jesse Eisenberg as J. Daniel Atlas, Woody Harrelson as Merritt McKinney, Isla Fisher as Henley Reeves and Dave Franco as Jack Wilder—are assembled by an anonymous patron to perform stage shows centered around a trick that inspired unadorned awe. A member of a Las Vegas audience is seemingly selected at random, given a helmet and placed inside a teleportation device that transports him to the bank vault of his choosing. Once inside, he activates an air duct that employs the same folded space—a loving nod to Dune if there ever was one—to vacuum millions of euros to the auditorium, showering the gleeful audience in Euros.

A cocksure FBI agent, Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is this called in to investigate. Strapped with gorgeous French Interpol agent Alma Vargas, the charming Mélanie Laurent effectively utilized as an earthy love interest, they will traverse the continental United States to bring them to justice. As the increasingly grandiose narrative snowballs more implausible plot turns, the film threatens to shrug off any audience members who paid to see an intelligent thriller. Furthermore, the benevolent actions of the Four Horsemen—the highlights of which are on full display in the trailer—serve as blatant wish fulfillment four out money hungry times. There are no less than three such heist/shower set pieces that squarely aim to put the audience in a euphoric trance.

Where the film compensates for its narrative shortcomings is in the bright, restless cinematography. This is easily the best looking film to have the Louis Leterrier stamp. Unmotivated camera movement, lens flares and a tight rein on the pacing knot finely with one liners and innocuous summer tone. This is the type of bargain-bin escapist entertainment that should bode well with forgiving, fun-seeking audiences.½

One of the things that totally kept me from loving this film was the whole hypnosis thing. It ain't that easy, mostly because it ain't even that real. But in this film you can mutter a word and a person is your zombie.

100 mil is highly unlikely. Even ignoring normal dropoff of 30-40+ % per week, much of the success of this film last weekend was the lack of much else opening against it. It was the best of the limited choices on a slow weekend. Its sole opponent was a badly reviewed scifi film. This week brings newer competition with Internship and Purge, and then right behind that is Man of Steel, This Is the End, etc.
It will do ok. but wont break 100.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesdevil

lol

The release date of this is bizarre to me and it seems like Lions Gate wants to bury it. Feels like a March or August movie to me.

Finally saw this today. It ends its run at the local AMC tomorrow. Bigger crowd than I thought would be at a 4:50 Wed show (although not a big crowd). Really enjoyed it. It had flaws, but it was fun. Had much more fun at this than I did at The Heat. I've only seen 5 movies since early June. Time to step it up. Can't wait to see Star Trek this week!

And re: the interview above... I think Eisenberg has a dry sense of humor. He very well may be a dick, but the interviewer was so unprofessional. You go through round after round of press just sitting there answering the same inane questions. That's bad enough. Then this gal comes in (probably a failed actor), seeming to want to interject herself into the interview (make it about her). Nobody cares lady. If you want to be a star, go stand in line. In the meantime, just ask the questions and don't act like an idiot.

edit: And we've been seeing absolute shit trailers so far this summer. To think this was the best set of trailers yet (considering this came out over a month ago)....wow.

Finally saw this today. It ends its run at the local AMC tomorrow. Bigger crowd than I thought would be at a 4:50 Wed show (although not a big crowd). Really enjoyed it. It had flaws, but it was fun. Had much more fun at this than I did at The Heat. I've only seen 5 movies since early June. Time to step it up. Can't wait to see Star Trek this week!

And re: the interview above... I think Eisenberg has a dry sense of humor. He very well may be a dick, but the interviewer was so unprofessional. You go through round after round of press just sitting there answering the same inane questions. That's bad enough. Then this gal comes in (probably a failed actor), seeming to want to interject herself into the interview (make it about her). Nobody cares lady. If you want to be a star, go stand in line. In the meantime, just ask the questions and don't act like an idiot.

edit: And we've been seeing absolute shit trailers so far this summer. To think this was the best set of trailers yet (considering this came out over a month ago)....wow.

I agree that this summer has been bad. I enjoyed this movie very much. its my number 1 at the moment and I have seen others like star trek, man of steel, and others.

Seems like this one is all sizzle, no steak. Aside from a really cool fight scene in which a cop fights a magician who's using parlor tricks, this one failed to impress me. The ending features a nonsensical twist - which I'm sure you knew would happen, based on the fact that it's about sleight of hand.

The real magic trick was how this made $100 million at the box office.